Alonso anticipates a “painful” triple header starting in Spain
Fernando Alonso expects a “painful” run of races for the Aston Martin Formula 1 team to begin in Barcelona, but he believes that a turnaround in form is not far away.
The Spaniard could qualify only 11th for his home race after both Alpine drivers made it into Q3, although he will gain a place from a grid penalty for Sergio Perez.
Alonso anticipates that the upcoming events in Austria and Britain will also be difficult for the Silverstone team.
However he believes that upgrades due before the summer break could provide a boost as soon as Belgium and Hungary.
“We knew that it will be very tight in this type of circuit,” he said when asked by this writer about missing Q3 in Barcelona.
“I think Austria will be extreme, because when you’re running in one minute and six seconds or four seconds, it’s going to be even tighter.
“I’m happy with the result, even if it’s painful to say, in front of the home grandstands. But before qualifying, our predictions were a little bit more pessimistic.
“Even with one car, we opted to go for three sets in Q1, which is a sign that you are not very confident. And all-in-all, I think to start P11, or P10 with Checo’s penalty is a good result, and hopefully tomorrow we are just one position away from the points. Let’s see.”
Alonso said he wasn’t concerned about Alpine pushing Aston out of the top 10 in Spain.
“No, I think we knew,” he said. “I mean, Alpine was in front of us in Monaco, it was very close in Canada, and here they are just half-a-tenth in front. So they are getting better, and we are getting worse, probably!
“So the combination of the two is not great! I think, as I said many times, we have some things in the pipeline that should put us back in the right direction.
“It’s going to be painful here. It’s going to be painful in Austria, in Silverstone. We have to keep scoring points if it’s eighth, if it’s seventh, ninth, whatever. But we cannot give up, and must stay positive in these tough times.”
Asked when that pain might end he said: “Hopefully before the summer break. But I think there are a lot of understandings in the team about what went right, what went wrong, not only this year, I think the second part of last year and this year.
“So I think as all the teams, we are getting more and more extreme with the development, and the cars are more critical to drive.
“I think now we understood a few ideas that will bring performance. But as I said, until the next three or four races, some pain to go through.”
Alonso acknowledged that performance in high-speed corners is an issue.
“We’ve been testing few different setups,” he said. “I think these long corners the cars, they all behave differently. I think our car was behaving very differently in Bahrain, and after the first packages that we introduced, we changed a little bit the characteristics of the car.
“So we can mitigate a little bit that with the setups. And I think we are understanding more and more. But when you understand the package, the next one is coming, and it resets everything.
“But as I said, Now I think we have a plan. Let’s see if it contributes to a better result. We are more confident that what we have been in the previous months.”
Alonso is adamant that the Aston technical team is gelling more efficiently as team goes by.
“We cannot forget that last year, it was the first car that this team was making, the new technical team was designing, and I think we’ve been trying to add performance to the car.
“Sometimes we didn’t add much, and we just made the car a little bit more difficult and tricky to drive. And they’ve been working for one year and a half together. So everything is glueing still at the top level, and I think now we are in a strong position into the future.
“So I’m very relaxed, but the present is what matters in racing, and the present is today, the present is Barcelona, and it’s obviously painful, I’m relaxed about the performance.”
Adam Cooper F1 